Cyrillic

Achtung Baby.

Sealed with a kiss. As someone who earns a living from the arrangement of words, it is worrying that I find images more assuring. In a fraction of a second, a photograph has the power to capture a scene that might become "iconic", meaning that its particulars might be understood to suggest much more general emotions, conflicts and problems. I think it is harder for words to withstand the passage of time and to transcend the boundaries of languages. Each time I am tired and lost, I play back James Nachtwey's 2007 TED talk. It disturbs me and makes me wonder why I am doing what I am doing and why my photos don't speak. I like this feeling of being disturbed. In a warped sense, it serves as a reminder that I should not lose hope.

"I am a witness and I want my testimony to be honest and uncensored. I also want it to be powerful and eloquent. And to do as much justice as possible to the experience of the people I am photographing. This man was in a NGO feeding centre being helped as much as he could be helped. he literally had nothing, he was a virtual skeleton. Yet he could still summon the courage and the will to move. He had not given up. And if he had not given up, how can anyone in the outside world dream of losing hope."
~ James Nachtwey